Earl Fox to play his hometown Sunday, Aug. 17

Friday

Aug 15, 2014 at 12:01 AM

SOMERSET — Earl Fox said he has been a drummer for more than 21 bands that have played in many places over the years, but this Sunday, he will be taking the short ride from his home in Somerset to Pierce Beach Park where he will be performing with Eddie & the Exciters.

George Austin

SOMERSET — Earl Fox said he has been a drummer for more than 21 bands that have played in many places over the years, but this Sunday, he will be taking the short ride from his home in Somerset to Pierce Beach Park where he will be performing with Eddie & the Exciters.

"It's a labor of love, I guess you'd say," Fox, a 1966 graduate of Somerset High School, said when talking about why he continues to play in bands. "There's a lot of enjoyment when you're in a band that makes a good sound and people respond to it."

The Eddie & the Exciters concert will start at the Pierce Beach Park stage at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 17. The concert is a makeup for a show that was canceled because of inclement weather at the end of July. It is part of the free summer concert series offered by the Somerset Recreation Department. People can bring lawn chairs and blankets to set up on the beach to watch the concert.

Eddie & the Exciters, which also consists of lead singer Eddie Fonseca, keyboard player Roger Thibault, lead guitarist and vocalist David Jacobs and Tommy Souza, bass guitar player and vocalist, plays music from the 1950s, '60s and early '70s, which Fox said is like the soundtrack of his younger days. He said when the musicians in the band first rehearsed together, they knew they had something special. He said they are all enthusiastic about the music, feel the same way about it and want to do it justice when they perform.

"We've got great singing, but a lot of bands have that," Fox said. "But we have a great rhythm section. It seems to be a great formula. People really respond. I've been in a lot of bands, but only a few of the bands I've been in have had that certain chemistry. You can't buy it. You can't find it. It's a roll of the dice."

As a young person, Fox said he really enjoyed listening to the radio. He said he thought he would be a disc jockey but did not have the voice for it. He listened to Elvis Presley, the Big Bopper and Little Richard with his older sister. He saw a movie about Bill Haley and his Comets that got him interested in entertainment. But he said it was when the Beatles burst onto the scene in the 1960s that every boy wanted to be a musician when they saw how much fun they had and how all the girls loved them. Fox decided to try playing the drums or bongos. He said he practiced playing drums in his bedroom and it did not come easily to him. He said he developed his skills with the drums through playing with talented musicians in bands who demanded a lot of him.

"I had to really step up my game to keep up," Fox said.

Fox said he has played in all kinds of bands from original rock bands to country bands to wedding bands. Some of them included bands called Cracken, Ozone Ryder Band, Celebration, Kid El Deen and the Marlowes. When he was younger, he really wanted to make it in the music business, so he joined some rock bands that played original music. He played on the Providence, R.I. circuit, getting some airplay on college radio stations and opportunities to open up for national acts, such as Driving and Crying, NRBQ, Mitch Ryder and The Bodeans.

"I've seen some pretty exciting things playing," Fox said. "We played in the WBRU rock hunt. It was a big event with thousands of people there. People used to move into this area just to play in that battle of the bands. We came in second. It was a pretty exciting event."

Fox has been called a dynamic, strong and creative drummer. He was a studio drummer for Hot Trax recording studio in Providence, R.I.

Fox said the drummers who have influenced him include Ringo Starr from the Beatles, John Bonham from Led Zeppelin and Mitch Mitchell from the Jimi Hendrix's band.

The arts run in Fox's family. His son Brian is a well known sports artist who has painted professional athletes from around the country. Brian lives right across the street from his father in the Brayton Point area section of town, which allows Earl to spend a lot of time with his grandsons, Jake, 10, and Nathan, 8, who come over to his house to play around with the drums and a guitar.

While he has played in many bands over the years, the only time that Fox can recall performing in Somerset was in 1970 at the high school with a band called Taylor. He is looking forward to performing at the beach this weekend.

"So I think I'm pretty lucky to find one more good band this late in my career," Fox said.